And I said, “Let us part: in a hundred years it'll all be

the same,

You cannot love me at all, if you love not my good name."

XIII

And he turn'd, and I saw his eyes all wet, in the sweet moonshine:

66

Sweetheart, I love you so well that your good name is mine.

And what do I care for Jane, let her speak of you well or

ill;

But marry me out of hand: we two shall be happy still."

XIV

Marry you, Willy!" said I, "but I needs must speak my mind,

I fear you will listen to tales, be jealous and hard and unkind."

But he turn'd and claspt me in his arms, and answer'd, "No, love, no;

دو

Seventy years ago, my darling, seventy years ago.

XV

So Willy and I were wedded: I wore a lilac gown ;
And the ringers rang with a will, and he gave the ringers a

crown.

But the first that ever I bare was dead before he was born, Shadow and shine is life, little Annie, flower and thorn.

XVI

That was the first time, too, that ever I thought of death. There lay the sweet little body that never had drawn a

breath.

I had not wept, little Anne, not since I had been a wife ; But I wept like a child that day, for the babe had fought for his life.

XVII

His dear little face was troubled, as if with anger or pain:
I look'd at the still little body-his trouble had all been in

vain.

For Willy I cannot weep, I shall see him another morn : But I wept like a child for the child that was dead before he was born.

XVIII

But he cheer'd me, my good man, for he seldom said me

nay:

Kind, like a man, was he; like a man, too, would have his

way:

Never jealous-not he: we had many a happy year;

And he died, and I could not weep-my own time seem'd

so near.

XIX

But I wish'd it had been God's will that I, too, then could have died:

I began to be tired a little, and fain had slept at his side. And that was ten years back, or more, if I don't forget: But as to the children, Annie, they're all about me yet.

XX

Pattering over the boards, my Annie who left me at two, Patter she goes, my own little Annie, an Annie like to you : Pattering over the boards, she comes and goes at her will, While Harry is in the five-acre and Charlie ploughing the hill.

XXI

And Harry and Charlie, I hear them too-they sing to their team:

Often they come to the door in a pleasant kind of a dream. They come and sit by my chair, they hover about my bed— I am not always certain if they be alive or dead.

XXII

And yet I know for a truth, there's none of them left alive;
For Harry went at sixty, your father at sixty-five :

And Willy, my eldest born, at nigh threescore and ten;
I knew them all as babies, and now they're elderly men.

XXIII

For mine is a time of peace, it is not often I grieve;

I am oftener sitting at home in my father's farm at eve: And the neighbours come and laugh and gossip, and so

do I ;

I find myself often laughing at things that have long gone

by.

XXIV

To be sure the preacher says, our sins should make us sad : But mine is a time of peace, and there is Grace to be had; And God, not man, is the Judge of us all when life shall

cease;

And in this Book, little Annie, the message is one of Peace.

XXV

And age is a time of peace, so it be free from pain,

And happy has been my life; but I would not live it again.
I seem to be tired a little, that's all, and long for rest ;
Only at your age, Annie, I could have wept with the best.

XXVI

So Willy has gone, my beauty, my eldest-born, my flower; But how can I weep for Willy, he has but gone for an

hour,

Gone for a minute, my son, from this room into the next;
I, too, shall go in a minute. What time have I to be vext?

XXVII

And Willy's wife has written, she never was overwise.
Get me my glasses, Annie: thank God that I keep my

eyes.

There is but a trifle left you, when I shall have past away. But stay with the old woman now: you cannot have long to stay.

(Once a Week, July 16, 1859)

CXLVIII

THE SAILOR BOY

He rose at dawn and flushed with hope
Shot o'er the seething harbour-bar,
And reached the ship and caught the rope,
And whistled to the morning star.

And while on deck he whistled loud
He heard a fierce mermaiden cry,
"Boy, though thou art young and proud,
I see the place where thou wilt lie.

"The sands and yeasty surges mix
In caves about the dreary bay ;
And on thy ribs the limpet sticks,

66

And in thy heart the scrawl shall play."

Fool!" he answer'd, "Death is sure

To those that stay and those that roam :
But I will never more endure

To sit with empty hands at home.

"My mother clings about my neck,

My sisters clamour, 'Stay, for shame!'
My father raves of death and wreck,

They are all to blame, they are all to blame.

"God help me! save I take my part

Of danger on the roaring sea,

A Devil rises in my heart,

(1861)

Far worse than any death to me."

CXLIX

ODE AT THE OPENING OF EXHIBITION, 1862

UPLIFT a thousand voices full and sweet,

In this wide hall with Earth's inventions stored,
And praise th' invisible, universal Lord,
Who lets once more in peace the nations meet
Where Science, Art and Labour have outpour'd
Their myriad horns of plenty at our feet.

O silent Father of our Kings to be,
Mourn'd in this golden hour of Jubilee,
For this, for all we weep our thanks to thee!

The world-compelling plan was thine,
And lo! the long laborious miles

Of Palace, lo! the giant Aisles

Rich in model and design,

Harvest-tool and husbandry,
Loom and wheel and Enginery,
Secrets of the sullen mine,

Steel and gold, and corn and wine,

Fabric rough, or fairy-fine,

Sunny tokens of the Line,

lar marvels, and a feast

wonder out of West and East,

■d shapes and hues of Art divine !
of beauty, all of use,

at one fair planet can produce;
ought from under ev'ry star,
own from over ev'ry main,

d mixt, as Life is mixt with pain,
e works of peace with works of war!

d is the Goal so far away?

? How far no man can say,
us have our dream to-day.

ye the wise who think, the wise who reign,
om growing Commerce loose her latest chain,
d let the fair white-wing'd peacemaker fly
▪ happy havens under all the sky,

d mix the seasons and the golden hours,
leach man find his own in all men's good,
d all men work in noble brotherhood-

aking their mailed fleets and armed towers, d ruling by obeying nature's powers,

d gathering all the fruits of peace, and crown'd with all her flowers.

CL

A WELCOME

SEA-KINGS' daughter from over the sea,

Alexandra!

Saxon and Norman and Dane are we,
But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee,
Alexandra!

Welcome her, thunders of fort and of fleet!
Welcome her, thundering cheer of the street!
Welcome her, all things youthful and sweet,
Scatter the blossom under her feet!
Break, happy land, into earlier flowers!

Make music, O bird, in the new-budded bowers!
Welcome her, welcome her, all that is ours!

Warble, O bugle, and trumpet, blare !

Flags, flutter out upon turrets and towers!
Flames, on the windy headland flare !